During a recent evaluation of a group of banks on customer effort levels required to interact in areas like branch banking, mobile websites, customer assistance and online banking, the results showed that the 45 to 65 age group, the most frequent bankers exerted the most effort to bank online.

Occupy movement activists in San Francisco first announced plans for People’s Reserve Credit Union, an in-the-works cooperative designed to serve local communities and take a stand against the city’s for-profit banks, in November 2011. The project is now well under way, with board and advisory committee meetings taking place and...